When should you actually blow money on weapons and armor?

[bulldog0890]

playing on hard, just at the start of the game. should i actually dump it all right now on a weapon or is there no point this early on?

[DaBa]

Whenever you feel like it's necessary is the answer to that. If you think you can do without it, then don't buy them and use the money instead to raise your social attributes faster with the arcade and other things. Also depends on how good you are at these games, hard is not very hard in this game so if you've played a lot of Persona games and SMT you can probably handle not spending the money on early game weapons (especially since the game will likely give you better ones as you explore tartarus).

[Niras]

When you have the money to spend. Ideally you should always have some money on you to spend on a times for various reasons, many good stat increases cost money
You can get an idea for what gear you might get after floor bosses by checking requests from Elizabeth.

I generally buy armor and weapons after reaching a roadblock in Tartarus just before full moon. I hate finding better gear after just my shopping spree.
It's not the best strategy but I'm playing on normal and generally I manage to reach a roadblock in 1 run so it's enough for me.

As the game progresses i'ts harder to reach a next roadblock in Tartarus in 1 run. Also later in the game there's incentive to go into Tartarus even if you reached a roadblock so you can start doing multiple dungeon runs, then buy gear between those runs.

[Arifufu]

when it gets some discount

[Viper]

Good idea to keep your weapons and armor up to snuff. Your not going to have enough money in the beginning however.

[digimon.movieOST]

I would recommend buying shoes 100%, increasing your evasion is insanely good. The game used to hand you armor constantly for free in the dungeon but that's no longer the case, so any gear you'll have to buy, pretty much. Definitely wait for a sale though.

Armor and Weapons on the other hand are tricky. I'm pretty sure this is how it works in Reloaded too, but the way Armor and Weapons work in every other Persona game is that they only affect basic attacks. So, using the best weapon in the game for the MC or having the worst weapon in the game wont increase the damage of any of your spells or physical skills (like Lunge or Bash) at all. Only when you use the basic attack command does it affect the damage formula. Armor, same thing but from the enemy. Some enemies will basic attack you, but 90% of the time the thing you're actually worried about is getting hit with spells. Definitely choose armor and weapons based on their little secondary effects, like stat ups or evasion against weaknesses, just buying the highest number is basically worthless.

I just tested this to make sure - used a phys skill on Junpei, did 70 damage, switched to a weapon twice as strong, did 68 damage with the skill, so basically just the difference of RNG. Armor is harder to test but I'm guessing it just works the same way as every other game too. So yeah, buy shoes 100%, basically never buy weapons unless you find yourself using basic attacks all the time, pick up armor if you see a good stat on it or just forego it and get it from the dungeon when you can.

[mutantbeth]

save money for increasing your stat just dungeon crawl to get or trad in good stuff

[Hauntings]

I buy the best weapons available right away(try it on Mondays for the sale tho)
I can just grind for more money and better weapons and armor means I save money on healing items.

[archonsod]

Originally posted by Digimon.MovieOST:

Armor and Weapons on the other hand are tricky. I'm pretty sure this is how it works in Reloaded too, but the way Armor and Weapons work in every other Persona game is that they only affect basic attacks.

Your basic attack is also the basis for the calculation for All Out damage. Given 99% of your combats in early game are likely to be downing the enemy and following up with an All Out, higher number is usually going to be better than secondary ability, with the possible exception of weapons which trigger status effects. Generally speaking, by the time you might start caring about the effects of persona abilities beyond their damage type, you'll have options other than just buying or scrounging gear.

[ChrissyCreme]

I'm on merciless and still have yet to buy weapons. I've just gotten past Priestess/the monorail.

I'll probably try to make 100,000 for social activities during the next tartarus run and any extra I make is going to go to weapons.

[WhitePhantom]

Early on you should at least get something other than the default gear to get you started. You should see some big jumps in stats.

[Someone]

Depends on the character
Yukari doesn't learn any physical skills so it's better for her to have a good weapon incase she can't use her wind attacks
Junpeis' persona on the other hand has amazing ST, so you pretty much only want to use his physical skills
Akihiko also had an ability that raised his standard attack but I am not sure if he still has it in the game

[Overeagerdragon]

Originally posted by Someone:

Depends on the character
Yukari doesn't learn any physical skills so it's better for her to have a good weapon incase she can't use her wind attacks
Junpeis' persona on the other hand has amazing ST, so you pretty much only want to use his physical skills
Akihiko also had an ability that raised his standard attack but I am not sure if he still has it in the game

Early game there's plenty of enemies weak to fire though... I remember there being some elites that were and having 2 chars who can down 1 after the other make those battles a LOT easier....

Sanaka doesn't have the strength increase anymore (he does still have the strength up buff though...as he should as his Theurgy works on buffing people) but his attack stat was scaled to rival Junpei's and at floor 90 I'm getting into the position that I when I go back out Sanada's SP is usually at 50% or more simply because he 1-2's most enemies to outright oblivion..... which is a pain because you REALLY wanna collect the arcana on those floors

[Someone]

Originally posted by Overeagerdragon:

Originally posted by Someone:

Depends on the character
Yukari doesn't learn any physical skills so it's better for her to have a good weapon incase she can't use her wind attacks
Junpeis' persona on the other hand has amazing ST, so you pretty much only want to use his physical skills
Akihiko also had an ability that raised his standard attack but I am not sure if he still has it in the game

Early game there's plenty of enemies weak to fire though... I remember there being some elites that were and having 2 chars who can down 1 after the other make those battles a LOT easier....

Sanaka doesn't have the strength increase anymore (he does still have the strength up buff though...as he should as his Theurgy works on buffing people) but his attack stat was scaled to rival Junpei's and at floor 90 I'm getting into the position that I when I go back out Sanada's SP is usually at 50% or more simply because he 1-2's most enemies to outright oblivion..... which is a pain because you REALLY wanna collect the arcana on those floors

You are completely right. I should have phrased that better. I actually meant that you should use his persona skill instead of his standard attack, when you want to do physical damage
But his MAG stat is still terrible, so I unless I want to knock something out, I vastly prefer to his his physical skills